Conflicting emotions

Title: The Accidental Garden:

Gardens, wilderness and the space in between

Author: Richard Mabey

Publisher: Profile Books; 2024

ISBN: 978-1805220701

Price: £12.99 (hardback)

This review has been very difficult to write because I have experienced a conflict between my respect for Richard Mabey, one of the best known nature writers in Britain, and my sense that if were not for his name, there would be no book. It's beautifully produced but very short. It has a comment from Isabella Tree on the front cover saying that it is ‘absolutely enchanting’. In a way, I know what she means, because Richard has a very good way with the English language, and he conjures up the atmosphere of his garden well.

But I found myself wondering what the book was for. It is almost a valediction from Richard in his older years, in which he emphasises the necessity to let nature have its own way. And it makes clear his horror at how modern agriculture is creating endless deserts of monoculture, and how climate change, especially heatwaves, is ruining our experience of the natural world.

He appears to be aware of the conflict between his beautiful prose and the stark horror of the situations which the world’s ecosystems now face. He even recounts his hurt at being accused of writing ‘postcards from Hiroshima’ in an earlier book.

I think his strongest message can be found about halfway through the book. He writes, “The default affective state of almost all living beings is an intense attentiveness, not to the self but to the world beyond. It might not be a bad goal for us too”.

However, the bulk of the book is taken up with descriptions of how nature takes over in some places where it is allowed, and how this has made the garden develop in unexpected directions. I have the impression of a man surveying his life's work, presenting it to us and making ready to say goodbye. I wish him many years yet of continuing to commune with his garden.

Carol Nixon